Rodenstocks

[CBarrett]

Hello All,

I just joined up and have some questions kicking around my head....

I've been shooting a P45 on an Arca 6x9 for about two years now, and while I've been really happy with the results, I've been wondering about lenses.

I have all Rodenstocks and while most of them are "old" film lenses, I do have the 35mm Digital.  The 35 is an amazing lens under the right circumstances, but I find I can only move about 7mm in any direction before I see some softness around the edges from diffraction (usually at f/11).  Does anyone have experience with the HR lenses?  I know the standard digitals have a much greater image circle, but then there's not a whole lot of usable image circle for a digi back.  I was wondering if the HR's might actually have a less conical spread, and provide an image circle with greater sharpness at the edges, and thus provide more than the 7mm of movement I'm getting from the other 35.

Also, I've noticed at the Linos site that the wide end of the Digital line is slated to be discontinued and mostly replaced by the HR-W line.

Thanks,

CB

[jotloob]

Hello All,

I just joined up and have some questions kicking around my head....

I've been shooting a P45 on an Arca 6x9 for about two years now, and while I've been really happy with the results, I've been wondering about lenses.

I have all Rodenstocks and while most of them are "old" film lenses, I do have the 35mm Digital.  The 35 is an amazing lens under the right circumstances, but I find I can only move about 7mm in any direction before I see some softness around the edges from diffraction (usually at f/11).  Does anyone have experience with the HR lenses?  I know the standard digitals have a much greater image circle, but then there's not a whole lot of usable image circle for a digi back.  I was wondering if the HR's might actually have a less conical spread, and provide an image circle with greater sharpness at the edges, and thus provide more than the 7mm of movement I'm getting from the other 35.

Also, I've noticed at the Linos site that the wide end of the Digital line is slated to be discontinued and mostly replaced by the HR-W line.

Thanks,

CB

As you have already been to the LINOS site , you must have noticed , that the figures for the image circle for the DIGARONS is no more provided .
Also that there is no table for the possible shifts any more .
My understanding to that is , that there is almost no movement possible any more .

[Jeffreytotaro]

The HR Lenses have small circles.  The Schneider 35XL Digitar has a larger image circle for sure and if you really want some movement, get the 47xl Digitar.  I do not have the stats handy but both lenses are great!.  Some loss of sharpness with large shifts, but we had that with film too.

[archivue]

From my readings i came to this conclusion :

22mp digital back and movement (even stitching) : apo sironar Digital 35

Small sensors, no mvt : 35 HR is the best

But for a beast like a P45, it lloks like that the Schneider Apo Digitar 35 XL is the way to go... but less image circle than the apo sironar digital.


I'm trying to built a kit on a budget that will be used with a 22mp back, so if you are selling your 35, please, keep me inform !
Thanks

PS : but if 40 is wider enought, then you should try the new HR Digaron-W 40 mm f/4

[rainer_v]

The HR Lenses have small circles.  The Schneider 35XL Digitar has a larger image circle for sure and if you really want some movement, get the 47xl Digitar.  I do not have the stats handy but both lenses are great!.  Some loss of sharpness with large shifts, but we had that with film too.

you should not notice any image degradation till the hard end of the image circle with the 35HR, at least thats my exprience with all this HR lenses,- together with dalsa sensors at least.

[CBarrett]

you should not notice any image degradation till the hard end of the image circle with the 35HR, at least thats my exprience with all this HR lenses,- together with dalsa sensors at least.

I have tested the Schneider 35 XL alongside my Rodenstock and found them to be very comparable.  The Sharpness falloff was just a hair better with the Schneider.  I haven't tested these lenses on film, but I would guess that they would hold apparent sharpness with much greater movements than the Digi Back allows, being that film is less susceptible to refraction.

I did a test last year when shooting an art museum in Michigan:

1.  I made a shot on 4x5 Ektachrome with a fair amount of rise on a 90mm Grandagon
2.  I made the same shot with 10mm rise on the 35mm Digital Apo-Sironar and P45+
3.  I made a comparable shot with the 35mm but used a tilt instead of rise (Architectural Photo Heresy)

The film (drum scanned) was sharp throughout the entire image.... well as sharp as chromes can be.
The shifted capture was really soft at the top of the image but much sharper than film in the middle of the image.
The tilted shot (with perspective corrected in Photo Shop) was tack sharp throughout and blew the film away.

Digital is definitely a whole new ball game!  I think a lot of shooters are moving to Plate Cameras like the Cambo and the Alpa because they're afraid of issues with focus falloff.  While you do really have to keep an eye on this, I find that you can still drastically improve the sharpness of an Architectural image applying a little ol' Scheimpflug.  Personally, I love the fact the my 12 year old Arca and some of my similar vintage film lenses can still roll with the new technology and outperform many of the fancy medium format cameras!

But I ramble....